Monthly Archives: July 2009

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Today being Friday, I want to give youse guys something to talk about all weekend. As for me, I’m in the Catskills, filming new episodes of American Airgunner.

Coming soonWell, Crosman has a PCP pistol that’s going to hit the market pretty soon, which I mean by Christmas. If not by then, certainly early next year. I shot it while in New York and it’s both powerful and accurate. Imagine a 2240 with a longer barrel and reservoir tube. I was able to cut weed stems at 23 yards when shooting in the Creedmore position. Imagine this thing as an affordable air pistol! Look for 12 foot-pounds.

There’s been an awakening among airgun manufacturers in the past three years. There’s been more innovation in the past three years than in the 40 years before that. I don’t think the trend has peaked yet, so I look for some surprises in the near future. The companies to watch are AirForce, Gamo, Crosman and FX.

I’m on the road again starting today. I’m heading to Crosman and then on to the American Airgunner studio. I should be back in the office next Friday, or perhaps on Thursday.

Today, we’ll look at the accuracy of the Gamo Extreme CO2. Before we do that, though, I had to mount a scope. The BSA 2-7x scope that came with my Beeman C1 carbine wasn’t doing anything at the moment, so I switched it to the Extreme CO2 and sighted-in at 10 feet. It took two shots to get on paper, and I was ready to move back to 25 yards. [I got distracted due to so many things happening at the same time & so many guns arriving for testing and review, that I completely spaced out the fact that the Extreme CO2 comes with a scope and one-piece mount!]

If you’ve read this blog for a long time, you know I’m constantly on the lookout for kids’ guns. They have to be sized small, lightweight, easy to cock or operate, and accurate. I prefer them to have open sights because I think all kids should learn to use them before moving to optics.

Today’s air rifle, the Gamo Lady Recon, has the small size, light weight and open sights I like to see. It barely squeaks by with a cocking effort of 18 lbs.–the maximum I want in a youth model. Yes, I read the specs on the PA website that say 19 lbs., but I also tested the test rifle. Accuracy we’ll have to test later.

You knew I would get to the RWS Model LP8 Magnum because I’m also testing the Browning 800 Mag, and the two are related in many reader’s minds. This pistol is made by Diana in Germany, but it bears a lot of resemblance to the Browning. It’s big, at 3.2 lbs. and 18 inches long, it’s black and it claims a velocity of 700 f.p.s. Like the Browning, the RWS LP8 is also a breakbarrel, but that’s where the similarity ends.

This gun has very little in the way of synthetic parts. The fully adjustable fiberoptic sights have plastic fiberoptic tubes, of course, but even their mounts are made of metal. It is as if someone in Germany is listening to the world’s airgunners.

The .22 caliber Air Venturi HaleStorm is a good-looking PCP repeater that’s also testing very well. We may have a major winner in this rifle!

Today, we’ll look at the accuracy of the .22 caliber Air Venturi HaleStorm. And now I’ll let you in on a little secret. When I tested this rifle back in March of this year, it didn’t yet have a name. I just called it the Hatsan repeater, because the decision to import it hadn’t yet been made. In fact, my test was required input for that decision.

Is this a worthy air rifle? Well, we saw in the velocity test that it has a good string of useful shots at a whopping 30+ foot-pounds of energy when heavy pellets are used. So, if it’s accurate as well, then, yes, it’s worth considering.

This series has gone on longer (over 2 years) than any other I’ve written for this blog, and it isn’t even about an airgun. However, the main reason I wrote this piece to begin with, was so I could share with you what I did when I bought something that turned out very differently than I supposed it would. Given my experience with airguns, it’s hard for me to be surprised by them anymore, but I thought if I could give you a window into what I do when life hands me a lemon, you might be more encouraged the next time an airgun surprises you.

To briefly summarize, I bought the Taurus PT1911 firearm because it was advertised as such a great value. I handled one at the SHOT Show, but of course couldn’t shoot one until I bought it. That’s not unlike many of you who shop online for airguns, except you may not get the chance to handle before you buy.

Well, I learned a lot about the Browning 800 Mag in this test. First, it is powerful, as the owners point out, though not as powerful as advertised. It has very nearly the power of a Beeman P1, which is considerable for a spring pistol. But there is no way my test pistol will ever shoot pellets at 700 f.p.s. without a detonation.

I also learned that the pistol is very hard to cock. My example registers 47 lbs. on my bathroom scale. While my test isn’t entirely scientific or even that accurate, I have tested all spring rifle cocking efforts on the same scale, so it is at least a standard. A Beeman Kodiak rifle (the one made in the UK) takes 50 lbs. to cock and we say it is hard, so a pistol that takes only three pounds less is formidable. I have a feeling that as the gun breaks in the effort will diminish some, but probably not below 40 lbs.

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